KING JOHN and Edward I used it for sumptuous banquets before it was raised to the ground by Oliver Cromwell and his marauding Roundheads - but to the people of Stockton, the town's medieval castle still remains a mystery.

Now a local historian aims to reclaim the Teesside town's heritage and tell the story of one of the North-East's forgotten fortresses.

Norton history buff Robert Harbron is asking for plaques and information boards to be erected around the site of the former castle.

Built in the 13th-Century, on land where the Swallow Hotel stands today, the seat acted as a home for the Bishop of Durham for the next 300 years. It proudly defended the market town until, in the 1650s, Cromwell ordered its destruction. Its cellars and dungeons still exist, but were filled in during the 1970s to bolster foundations for the Swallow Hotel, which stands at the south end of the aptly-named Castlegate shopping centre.

Mr Harbron said that, alongside The Green Dragon Museum, cabinet-maker Thomas Sheraton and Captain Cook's comrade William Christopher, the castle deserves a bigger place in Stockton's 2,000-year history.

He said: "It was used mainly as a home for the Bishop of Durham and was very convenient because it helped shield him from the plague or Scots raiding parties.

"It was a substantial building with a banqueting hall and turrets and was used to entertain two kings - John and Edward I.

"They wouldn't have gone slumming it so it must have been some kind of place.

"Its moat stretched from half-way up High Street to the Yarm Lane roundabout and to Chandlers Wharf and it has left a couple of road names as its legacy - Moat Street and Tower Street. Those cellars probably still contain medieval wine, mead and ale, and stone from the walls were used to construct most of Finkle Street. Yet there is no outside information telling people about the castle, and if it was in another historical town you can bet there would be a plaque on every street corner. It would cost money, but would raise the profile of a town with a long and eventful history."